Sen. Bo Watson Explains His Vote Against Insure Tennessee

Nashville, TN (WDEF) – State Senator Bo Watson was one of the lawmakers who voted down Insure Tennessee on Tuesday.

He is looking for alternatives to increasing TennCare costs to expand health care access.

“Politics promises an immediate solution that many times carries unintended consequences,” Watson noted. “Effective policy considers the short and long-term impact especially when spending taxpayer money. I still remember the harm to our state’s budget that occurred with the excessive growth of TennCare a few short years ago.”

Sen. Watson says Governor Bredesen wanted to limit TennCare spending to 25% of the state budget, but it now takes up 32% of the budget. 

“Both Democrats and Republicans recognize that existing Medicaid costs already dominate so much of Tennessee’s budget that other essential needs like education, roads, and public safety are unable to be properly funded due to limited tax-payer dollars,” said Watson.

“A great deal of Insure TN would be funded by federal pass-through dollars; however, our state would have to increase spending on an annual basis to administer this expansion of Medicaid,” explained Watson who voted against the proposal. “There is no such thing as a free program as many want to believe. As I hear requests for increased funding for roads and schools, including the threat of lawsuits for inadequate education funding, spending even more money to grow our Medicaid rolls may be good politics, but is not policy that taxpayers expect.”